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LOS GATOS (CBS SF) – 2011 was a rough year for Netflix after the company announced it was raising its rates, losing hundreds of thousands of customers in the process.

But KCBS Technology Analyst Larry Magid said there was some positive news for the company at year’s end as officials said that during the fourth quarter of 2011, more than 2 billion hours of television shows and movies were streamed worldwide.

KCBS Technology Analyst Larry Magid:

Tech Report: Netflix Shows Surprising Fourth Quarter Surge

“There were a lot of people who quit Netflix, about 800,000 in total,” said Magid. “But what you have to realize is there are 20 million people with Netflix accounts. So if you look at it on a percentage basis, it’s like four percent. That’s still a lot but not enough to kill the company.”

Magid said the company is also positioning itself for the future.

“Netflix is in transition. They got some rough press and a lot of people were upset,” he said. “But they understand that the future is streaming, it’s not DVD’s. DVD’s are big right now but at some point in the future, it’s going to go away and they want to be positioned as the leader in streaming video.”

Magid said that despite the down year, Netflix still has the brand and members to succeed against its closest competitors.

You can hear Larry Magid’s Tech Report Monday through Friday at 3:50pm on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM.

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